With a budget of €30.4 M the NCN is funding 90 research projects across all domains within the HARMONIA and MAESTRO grant schemes. The largest share of the funds was awarded to researchers representing physical sciences and engineering who received almost €15.6 M. Scientists conducting research in the field of life sciences were granted about €11.2 M, whereas the amount earmarked for projects in humanities, arts and social sciences exceeded €3.6 M.
The MAESTRO funding opportunity, launched twice a year, is designed for researchers who have already established themselves as notable scientific researchers in their own field. In response to the call for proposals announced in December 2011, the NCN received 267 research projects, 40 of which were approved for funding.
The HARMONIA grant scheme is intended for scientists conducting projects either in international cooperation or requiring large-scale international research infrastructure. 50 research projects from among 284 submitted received funding.
The largest amount of funds was granted to prof. Roman Płaneta from the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of Jagiellonian University. The project, worth about €1.2 M, aims to study hadron and nucleus collisions with nuclei and will be conducted in CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).